I went early one morning, with Mr. Levinge the Collector, to visit the great pagoda of Madura, some of the oldest parts of which date from the reigns of Pandyan kings in the eighth century. It covers twenty acres of ground, and is surrounded by a high stone wall painted in red and white stripes, the Hindoo holy colours. The walls form a perfect square, and in the centre of each side there is a lofty gopuram or tower. These towers are broad, solid, and very lofty masses of brick, in the form of a truncated pyramid. From the base to the summit they are one mass of sculptured figures, representing all the gods in Hindu mythology, rising tier above tier to the summit, and decreasing in size with the height. Each end of the top of the gopuram is ornamented by a fan-shaped structure of brick-work, representing the hood of a cobra. We entered the pagoda by a gateway in the left corner of the wall facing the great choultry built by Tirumalla Naik. Here the warden of the pagoda was waiting for us, who had arrived just before in his palkee. He is of Sudra caste, a man advanced in years, and of much reputed holiness; and he received us in a state of nudity, with the exception of a yellow gauze scarf, his belly, chest, and forehead being smeared with holy ashes. A crowd of Brahmins accompanied us.
A long corridor leads from the entrance to the cloister, with a roof supported by stone pillars, between which elephants were stationed, gaudily painted and caparisoned. The cloister is the finest part of the interior of the pagoda. The walls are covered with paintings representing the marvellous adventures of Krishna, and the pillars supporting the roof of the galleries are roughly carved. The central space is occupied by "the tank of the golden lotus," with very dirty green water, and stone steps leading down from the cloister. The view from one corner of this tank is very striking; with green stagnant water as a foreground, rows of fantastically-carved pillars supporting the gallery on the opposite side, with the lofty gopurams in the rear, rising as it were from the graceful fronds of cocoanut-trees which waved over the roof of the cloisters. Sacred monkeys were running about in all directions over the roofs.
The Sangattar or literary college of Madura held its sittings in this cloister; and Siva is said to have presented it with a diamond bench which extended itself readily for such persons as were worthy to be on a level with the sages of the Sangattar, and excluded all who tried to sit on it without possessing the necessary qualifications. In other words, the learned corporation of Madura maintained a strict and exclusive monopoly. One day a man of the Pariar or lowest caste, named Tiruvallavar, appeared as a candidate for a seat on the bench of Sangattar professors. The sages were indignant at his presumption, but, as he was patronized by the Rajah, they were obliged to give his book a trial. It was to find a place on the bench, which the professors took care to occupy fully. But the miraculous bench extended itself to receive the book, which expanded and thrust all the sages off into "the tank of the golden lotus," and the Sangattar was abolished. This took place in about the ninth century, and the work of Tiruvallavar, called kural, and consisting of 1330 aphorisms, still exists, and is the oldest extant work in Tamil literature. Though rejected by the Sangattar, on account of the low caste of its author, it was received by the Rajah and people; and the college was abolished, or perhaps dissolved itself from mortification at this defeat.
In a corner of the cloister is the entrance to one of the gopurams, and we went up to the top. Holding on by the cobra's hood which crowns the tower, there was an extensive view of the town of Madura and surrounding country, with its bright green rice cultivation, groves of palmyra-palms, broad expanses of water, isolated masses of rock, and the Pulney hills in the far distance.
We passed from the cloister, and walked round the corridors which surround the holy of holies containing the Sokalinga, the sacred emblem of the God Siva, which no one but a Brahmin can enter; and the temple of Minakshi, his fish-eyed wife. The pillars in these corridors are curiously carved in the form of dancing-girls, elephant-headed Gods, Sivas, and bulls. Here I was decorated with garlands of flowers by the warden of the temple, and I saw that there was a flower-garden in a small enclosure near the cloister, to supply offerings of flowers for the ceremonial worship in the temple. In the Hindu religion bright-coloured or fragrant flowers take a prominent place as offerings to the gods. The arrows of Kama, the God of Love, were tipped with five flowers:[451] the asoka (Jonesia pinnata), a beautiful flower diversified with orange, scarlet, and bright-yellow tints, is consecrated to Siva; the lotus-flower, called kamata or padma, to Vishnu and his wife Lakshmi; a sweet-scented jasmine (Jasminum undulatum) to Vishnu, and Mariama the Goddess of Pariars; the superb crimson Ixora Bandhuca is offered at the shrines of Vishnu and Siva; and the Nauclea Cadumba, a stately tree, yields the holiest flower in India.[452] In an angle of one of the corridors all the jewels of the temple were spread out on a table for our inspection, and we sat down before them, by the side of the old warden. It was a truly magnificent display of wealth; and it was impossible not to feel that there must be deep faith and conviction in a religion which induces men to go about naked and in ashes, and to devote tens of thousands of rupees to ornament the mystic emblems of their Gods. I particularly noticed some sapphires of extraordinary size and brilliancy; the cover of the lingam, a cylinder of pure gold, four feet high, encrusted with pearls and rubies; the golden sceptre of Siva, three feet long, and one mass of rubies; the golden shoes and gauntlets of Siva and Minakshi, inlaid with rubies, emeralds, and pearls; the head-dress of Minakshi of gold Trichinopoly-work, adorned with pearls and rubies, with enormous emeralds hanging from it; her playthings, consisting of golden birds overlaid with rubies and emeralds; and necklaces and bracelets covered with jewels of priceless value. There was also a costly gold chain presented by Mr. Peters, a former Collector, and another which had lately arrived from Agra, in an anonymous letter addressed to the pagoda.
From this corridor I was able to peep down a dark passage at the end of which there were some dim lights surrounding the sacred Soka-linga, but I could not distinguish anything. The warden told us that it was a piece of solid rock cropping out of the ground, and cut into the shape of a cylinder, with a rounded top, as the mysterious emblem of Siva, the God of reproduction. Its roots are said to be in the centre of the earth, and to have been there since the creation. The Pandyan kings, when they were dying, were taken into the innermost sanctuary of Siva's temple, to expire and be united with their God. Parallel with this holy of holies dedicated to the worship of Siva, in the form of his mystic emblem, is the temple of his wife Parvati, here better known as Minakshi, or the fish-eyed.
We then went into the hall of the thousand pillars, which are carved into the shape of gods or dancing-girls, and support a flat stone roof. Here some nautch-girls came dancing before us in silk trousers, long tunics, golden headdresses, and rings on their ears, noses, and toes; as we walked down the long vistas of pillars. Their motions are stiff and without grace, like the contortions of galvanized corpses, and they are generally very ugly, with black teeth. I was glad when they relieved us of their disgusting presence, as we were shown into a chamber near the outer door, where the horses and bulls used in the great processions are kept. These are made of solid silver, ornamented with precious stones, and on festivals the God and Goddess are mounted on them, and carried round the town.
This great pagoda is very richly endowed, and is one of the most famous in Southern India. It was originally, and for several centuries, the centre of Tamil civilization, and it is a very characteristic specimen of Hindu architecture. All originality and intellectual vigour has disappeared from amongst the Tamil people, under the blighting influence of foreign domination, but their devotional feeling appears to have survived; together with respect and veneration for the doctrines and aphorisms of their classic sages, among the more educated. Aghastya stands at the head of the Tamil authors, and the following confession of faith, in the Njana-nuru is attributed to him:—
"Worship thou the light of the Universe, who is One:
Who made the world in a moment, and placed good men in it;
Who afterwards himself dawned upon the earth as a Guru;
Who, without wife or family, as a hermit performed austerities;
Who, appointing loving sages to succeed him,
Departed again into Heaven:—worship Him."[453]